Once white people start shopping in niche neighborhoods they will bring the developers and they will find someway to fukk it up for the original residents!
Black residents reject Trader Joe’s because it would attract too many white people
- Thread starter ltheghost
- Start date
Once white people start shopping in niche neighborhoods they will bring the developers and they will find someway to fukk it up for the original residents!
Hulk Hogan
THE HULKSTER BROTHER
FLAIR DOESN'T PAY BAR TABS, HOTEL FEES, ALIMONY, OR CHILD SUPPORT!poor folks don't pay taxes..........
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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The entire mindset of the black leaders is MORE WELFARE. That's it. Meanwhile the deficit grows and grows with every passing year. Its moronic. Black leaders need to be hitting up these fukking corporations for dollars to BETTER THE COMMUNITY, not just to fatten the pockets of Sharpton, Jesse. and the NAACP. This type of bullshyt reasoning is part of the reason why I don't fukk with the NAACP. Too focused on government intervention to solve problems. Those negroes have a construction era attitude.
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[Something Cool]
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Lol I first came in the thread on some "how can anyone hate on Trader's Joes man?" After reading the articles posted by Hogan and Midwest I'm not sure it was handled correctly.
"The new plan calls for two buildings totaling about 20,000 square feet, with half for the grocery store and half for four to 10 retail or office spaces."
If not for affordable housing, maybe should have pushed for covenants establishing minority owned businesses in those extra retail spaces on top of an affirmative duty to hire locally (which is probably going to happen regardless). Just leaving it vacant doesn't serve any purpose. At least anyone looking to buy that land now knows it really ain't 2.9 million lmao.
"According to PDC documents, the developer unsuccessfully reached out to owners of three neighboring homes, attempting to buy more land to increase the size of the project"
I wouldnt have sold my house to them either. Gimmie that equity 
never been
But it sounds like the area is already fukked up. This is why we need to be in a position of REAL power in our neighborhoods and stop just accepting all this low income housing. Then we could force stores that want to come into our community to agree to our terms or to stay out. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of black owned businesses to provide competition in black neighborhoods, shifting the balance of power out of our neighborhoods. When Chicago knocked down the hi-rise projects, Gary's mayor practically begged the displaced Chicagoans to move into Gary. Even though we had recently built a 60 million dollar baseball stadium, and still had NOT gotten any business or development into the downtown area. Businesses help decrease the tax burden, so theoretically, with more businesses, the taxes should go down. It's hard on the community when you run businesses off that can provide some type of service or promote future development. We shouldn't be afraid of that. Even if the taxes and rent go up, there would be perks (should be perks). Less crime (or just more cops), better roads, better schools, (wealthier politicians...). I honestly think we really need to be more active in the community. I'm speaking from Gary, IN, so it's probably worse here than most places, other than Detroit (no offense) and maybe Newark (again no offense). But I've seen first hand how a city can degenerate with having a solid tax base.
125th St in Harlem USA got wiped out by corporate gentrification
Harlem's Hue-Man bookstore to close doors on July 31
Owner Marva Allen says new model needed in era of e-books
Comments (1) By Michael J. Feeney / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, July 2, 2012
Michael Dabin/Michael Dabin
The Hue-man bookstore and cafe, located at 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem, has played host to signings by celebrated list of authors ranging from President Clinton to Master P.
One of Harlem’s last surviving bookstores, known for bringing black authors into the building as well as onto its shelves, is closing its doors.
Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe, which had a 10-year run on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 125th St., will close at the end of the month, the store announced in an e-mail blast that went out to customers on Sunday.
The store’s demise wasn’t attributable to any single cause, said owner Marva Allen. Her hand was not forced by plummeting sales or a money-hungry landlord. Allen simply came to realize that her current business model could not be sustained in an era of e-books and digital delivery.
“We’re 10 years old and our lease is up,” she told the Daily News on Monday. “It was very difficult to imagine signing another 10-year lease. . . . This no longer represented the bookstore of the future.”
Allen, who plans to continue to sell the Hue-Man inventory online, said she looks forward to hosting events in the community and hopes to one day return with a new store.
“We don’t intend to completely leave Harlem. . . . We are going to do what we call ‘pop-up events,’ ” she said, promoting a Sept. 6 event with Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade.
“We were in an obsolete model, and we’re interested in figuring out what the bookstore of the future looks like,” she added, sitting inside the shop that has hosted book signings for President Bill Clinton, author Terry McMillan and Bill Cosby.
Calling it quits wasn’t easy for the Jamaican-born entrepreneur and retired technologist.
“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made,” Allen said, noting that even though sales for the year have been up 37%, she didn’t see business increasing enough to pay the new rent.
Since the announcement, longtime customers have been calling Allen and sending e-mails, begging her not to go and asking what they can do to keep the shop around. Some have even offered to host fund-raisers.
Stunned customers on Monday filed into the store, which has signs advertising 40% off the inventory.
“You mean to tell me you’re closing?” one man asked Allen. “Don’t do that. Is there anything that I can do?”
Allen encouraged him to spread the word about the closing, and told him to tell people to purchase books before July 31, the store’s final day.
“We’ll be back,” she told him. “We’re working on being back.”
Brian Brockington, 47, of the Bronx, came to the store after a friend told him the news of the closure. He was looking for “The Condemnation of Blackness” by Schomburg Center Director Khalil Gibran Muhammad.
“It broke my heart,” said the book collector, who grew up in the St. Nicholas Houses in Harlem. “It’s a real loss for the community. Now, I have no choice but to go to Barnes & Noble.”
The book lovers who frequent the shop may be trying to wrap their heads around the news, but Allen said she remains hopeful the store will get a second wind.
“I hope we come back in a new format, and people will say, ‘Oh, my God. It’s Hue-Man,’ ” she said, describing her next shop as a mix of technology and books. “We need to separate into a new model, and a new look. I believe the future bookstore looks like an Apple Store-Plus; it doesn’t look like this.”
Sister’s Uptown Bookstore & Cultural Center on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 156th St., Deja Vu Book Lounge on Lexington Ave. near E. 110th St. and the newly opened La Casa Azul Bookstore on E. 103rd St. near Lexington Ave. remain the only bookstores uptown.
The volunteer-run Word Up Bookstore, initially opened as a temporary shop on Broadway near W. 175th St., was supposed to be around for only a month but has managed to stay open into its second year.
Allen, meanwhile, said she hopes to pioneer a new bookstore model.
“This is no longer sufficient,” she said of the store. “The industry is moving on, and we’ve got to move along with it.”
Angel Chevrestt, Freelance/Angel Chevrestt, Freelance
The owner of the Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 125th St., has announced that the Harlem store will close at the end of the month, leaving fans shocked and sad.
Harlem's Hue-Man bookstore to close doors on July 31
Owner Marva Allen says new model needed in era of e-books
Comments (1) By Michael J. Feeney / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, July 2, 2012
The Hue-man bookstore and cafe, located at 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem, has played host to signings by celebrated list of authors ranging from President Clinton to Master P.
One of Harlem’s last surviving bookstores, known for bringing black authors into the building as well as onto its shelves, is closing its doors.
Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe, which had a 10-year run on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 125th St., will close at the end of the month, the store announced in an e-mail blast that went out to customers on Sunday.
The store’s demise wasn’t attributable to any single cause, said owner Marva Allen. Her hand was not forced by plummeting sales or a money-hungry landlord. Allen simply came to realize that her current business model could not be sustained in an era of e-books and digital delivery.
“We’re 10 years old and our lease is up,” she told the Daily News on Monday. “It was very difficult to imagine signing another 10-year lease. . . . This no longer represented the bookstore of the future.”
Allen, who plans to continue to sell the Hue-Man inventory online, said she looks forward to hosting events in the community and hopes to one day return with a new store.
“We don’t intend to completely leave Harlem. . . . We are going to do what we call ‘pop-up events,’ ” she said, promoting a Sept. 6 event with Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade.
“We were in an obsolete model, and we’re interested in figuring out what the bookstore of the future looks like,” she added, sitting inside the shop that has hosted book signings for President Bill Clinton, author Terry McMillan and Bill Cosby.
Calling it quits wasn’t easy for the Jamaican-born entrepreneur and retired technologist.
“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made,” Allen said, noting that even though sales for the year have been up 37%, she didn’t see business increasing enough to pay the new rent.
Since the announcement, longtime customers have been calling Allen and sending e-mails, begging her not to go and asking what they can do to keep the shop around. Some have even offered to host fund-raisers.
Stunned customers on Monday filed into the store, which has signs advertising 40% off the inventory.
“You mean to tell me you’re closing?” one man asked Allen. “Don’t do that. Is there anything that I can do?”
Allen encouraged him to spread the word about the closing, and told him to tell people to purchase books before July 31, the store’s final day.
“We’ll be back,” she told him. “We’re working on being back.”
Brian Brockington, 47, of the Bronx, came to the store after a friend told him the news of the closure. He was looking for “The Condemnation of Blackness” by Schomburg Center Director Khalil Gibran Muhammad.
“It broke my heart,” said the book collector, who grew up in the St. Nicholas Houses in Harlem. “It’s a real loss for the community. Now, I have no choice but to go to Barnes & Noble.”
The book lovers who frequent the shop may be trying to wrap their heads around the news, but Allen said she remains hopeful the store will get a second wind.
“I hope we come back in a new format, and people will say, ‘Oh, my God. It’s Hue-Man,’ ” she said, describing her next shop as a mix of technology and books. “We need to separate into a new model, and a new look. I believe the future bookstore looks like an Apple Store-Plus; it doesn’t look like this.”
Sister’s Uptown Bookstore & Cultural Center on Amsterdam Ave. near W. 156th St., Deja Vu Book Lounge on Lexington Ave. near E. 110th St. and the newly opened La Casa Azul Bookstore on E. 103rd St. near Lexington Ave. remain the only bookstores uptown.
The volunteer-run Word Up Bookstore, initially opened as a temporary shop on Broadway near W. 175th St., was supposed to be around for only a month but has managed to stay open into its second year.
Allen, meanwhile, said she hopes to pioneer a new bookstore model.
“This is no longer sufficient,” she said of the store. “The industry is moving on, and we’ve got to move along with it.”
The owner of the Hue-Man Bookstore & Cafe on Frederick Douglass Blvd. near W. 125th St., has announced that the Harlem store will close at the end of the month, leaving fans shocked and sad.
A bad move on a loan at the height of the boom, a financial crisis in the bust that followed, and finally, foreclosure and bankruptcy forcing a family from its longtime home.
It's happened all over the United States — and now it's happened in San Francisco to the country's oldest black bookstore.
Marcus Books, the Fillmore District institution that's been in the same Victorian at 1712 Fillmore St. since 1960, must move out by June 18, following an April bankruptcy sale that saw the storied building sold for a fraction of what it is likely worth.
When the bookstore leaves the three-story building — trucked there from Laguna Street after it was saved from the Redevelopment Agency wrecking ball that leveled most of the Western Addition — it also means the family that owns it must leave the two upstairs flats.
That is, unless the new owners can be convinced — by the NAACP, by housing activists, by the neighborhood, and by The City — to sell to a neighborhood-based nonprofit that's offering them a modest profit on their deal, as well as the chance to be saviors to a pillar of black community in San Francisco.
"We're not asking for a handout," said Gregory Johnson, who with his wife, Karen run the bookstore. "It would be one thing if we didn't have the money," Karen Johnson added, as they sat in the bookstore's incense-scented ground-floor space, indoor plants adding to the cool refuge from an unseasonably hot afternoon. "But we do. We have the money and The City behind us."
The trouble at Marcus Books began in 2006. Like so many other people during the real estate boom, the family took out a loan in order to pay expenses, Karen Johnson said during an interview at the bookstore Friday.
And like so many others, the loan — $950,000, with fixed monthly payments but a high 10 percent interest rate — turned out to be "predatory," she said. Monthly payments on the building ballooned to about $10,000, according to Dr. Mary Ann Jones, executive director of Westside Community Services.
The family has contacted the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris, which is investigating the loan's legitimacy, according to attorney Julian Davis. But in the meantime, a last-minute effort by the Johnsons to buy the property from creditors missed a deadline.
The building was sold off in bankruptcy court to real estate investors who own a taxicab company and specialize in finding distressed properties for investment opportunities.
The closing of the oldest continuously running black bookstore in the country would be just part of the loss to the community. Dr. Raye Richardson, who is 93 and still lives in the home, and her late husband, Dr. Julian Richardson, who died in 2000, were longtime San Francisco State University professors who were pillars of the Fillmore. A new senior housing complex on Fulton and Gough streets was named after them.
And if the bookstore goes, it will be yet another longtime black-owned business falling victim to a changing landscape. The the nearby Chicago Barbershop also closed suddenly, in April.
The bookstore is more symbolic. Spirits are fueled by the message in these books, which is that black people have contributed to society intellectually. "Did you know that Buddha was black?" Karen Johnson asks.
"It's one of the only institutions African American people feel comfortable going to," said Dr. Mary Ann Jones, executive director of Westside Community Services, which uses the bookstore's space as a meeting place and a center for mental health and welfare to work services.
Westside has offered to pay the new owners Nishan and Suhaila Sweis $1.64 million for the building, which would be a profit of $50,000 or 3 percent. Sweises paid $1.59 million for the property in April. That price included a $39,750 commission for Suhaila Sweis and about $223,000 for the Richardsons and Johnsons, according to court records.
Jones said that the Sweises are refusing to sell for less that $3.2 million, and that they asked a judge in April to order an eviction.
Nishan and Suhaila Sweis did not respond to a telephone message left at their South San Francisco home.
More: Marcus Books on the brink of closure | Neighborhoods | San Francisco Examiner
GoddamnyamanProf
Countdown to Armageddon
Right?Trader Joes is the shyt. Given the sheer pervasiveness of shytty fast food in many predominately black areas we need to welcome quality food at good prices. I mean its not grossly overpriced like fukkin' Whole Foods. Whose sponsoring these clowns?
I could see if it was Whole Foods but TJ aint even expensive, just nicer. I bet milk and chips are cheaper there than at the shytty liquor stores in the area smh.
An Old Record Shop May Fall Victim to Harlem’s Success
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Bobby Robinson at Bobby’s Happy House, his record store in Harlem. The shop will have to move early next year, and Mr. Robinson is not sure he will find a new location that he can afford.
By JOHN ELIGON
Published: August 21, 2007
Bobby Robinson sat in a lawn chair in the Harlem
Around him, family members and friends chatted about topics ranging from food to Barack Obama. One person sat in a chair reading a newspaper, another sat on a cooler drinking a can of beer with a straw, yet another ate a slice of pizza.
And in a span of roughly two hours, the store had only three customers, who browsed the selection of gospel, jazz and soul records, cassettes and CDs. Only one made a purchase.
With computerized music in full swing, Mr. Robinson’s store, Bobby’s Happy House, which he opened in 1946, is hardly about selling records, cassettes or CDs anymore. It has become a landmark of Harlem’s black heritage and a place that residents of the neighborhood can call home.
“It’s a positive place,” said Josephine Bush, 55, who grew up with Mr. Robinson’s daughter and often spends time at the shop. “It’s just comfortable. You can come in and relax.”
But because Mr. Robinson’s store is no longer lucrative, it may succumb to Harlem’s growing corporate landscape. This summer, the building that houses Bobby’s was sold to a development partnership of the Kimco Realty Corporation and the Sigfeld Group. Mr. Robinson was asked to leave by the end of last month.
Some neighbors held a rally on his behalf, and then his lawyer helped arrange a deal last week that will let him stay until early next year and receive money from the new management group for his move. The new owners did not return several phone calls seeking an interview.
Even if Mr. Robinson finds a new location, however, the market rates for commercial space in Harlem, and throughout Manhattan, could make it difficult for the store to survive, said Denise Benjamin, Mr. Robinson’s daughter, who now runs the store.
“I’m concerned that we may not be able to reopen anywhere,” Ms. Benjamin said.
“And I’m really concerned about him because it’s his life work,” she said of her father.
Mr. Robinson came to Harlem and opened his store after serving in the Army in Hawaii. He was originally on 125th Street, at the corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Nearly 20 years ago, he was forced around the corner and onto Frederick Douglass by the advent of a Kentucky Fried Chicken branch.
Even with that move, Mr. Robinson had the same landlord, a friend who Ms. Benjamin said gave him a good deal on rent. When that building owner died, his daughter took over and continued to charge Mr. Robinson a manageable rent.
Ms. Benjamin said they now pay $2,850 a month for about 1,200 square feet, which is the equivalent of $28.50 per square foot per year. Retail space in Harlem is generally going for $75 to $200 per square foot per year, according to separate estimates by Shimon Shkury, a managing partner at Massey Knakal Realty Services, and CB Richard Ellis, a brokerage firm.
Of course, Mr. Robinson could move out of Harlem, but that would be less than desirable. For one thing, Mr. Robinson is widely believed to be the first black business owner on 125th Street — a distinction that his new landlords agreed to note in a plaque at the site of his original storefront. He has also lived within walking distance of his store since it opened.
“Harlem is my home,” he said. “It always sets me apart as the first colored man to ever own a store on 125th Street. That’s my big thing.”
Indeed, some people believe that Harlem without Bobby’s would not be the same.
The store is a stop on Hush Tours, which takes people for a close look at the hip-hop culture in Harlem and the Bronx. Debra Harris, who owns the tour company, said the visit to Bobby’s helps people gain a sense of the roots of hip-hop: Mr. Robinson produced records for several performers under his own labels.
“With that being gone, it’s really, really going to hurt the community and the preservation of the roots of hip-hop,” Ms. Harris said, “because he’s like one of the last Mohicans up there.”
For the moment, however, Mr. Robinson, who was dressed in a suit with a top hat and snakeskin shoes, seems to be proceeding with the unruffled demeanor of a man who has lived his life note by note.
“I’ve had a great life so far,” he said.
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Bobby Robinson at Bobby’s Happy House, his record store in Harlem. The shop will have to move early next year, and Mr. Robinson is not sure he will find a new location that he can afford.
By JOHN ELIGON
Published: August 21, 2007
Bobby Robinson sat in a lawn chair in the Harlem
Around him, family members and friends chatted about topics ranging from food to Barack Obama. One person sat in a chair reading a newspaper, another sat on a cooler drinking a can of beer with a straw, yet another ate a slice of pizza.
And in a span of roughly two hours, the store had only three customers, who browsed the selection of gospel, jazz and soul records, cassettes and CDs. Only one made a purchase.
With computerized music in full swing, Mr. Robinson’s store, Bobby’s Happy House, which he opened in 1946, is hardly about selling records, cassettes or CDs anymore. It has become a landmark of Harlem’s black heritage and a place that residents of the neighborhood can call home.
“It’s a positive place,” said Josephine Bush, 55, who grew up with Mr. Robinson’s daughter and often spends time at the shop. “It’s just comfortable. You can come in and relax.”
But because Mr. Robinson’s store is no longer lucrative, it may succumb to Harlem’s growing corporate landscape. This summer, the building that houses Bobby’s was sold to a development partnership of the Kimco Realty Corporation and the Sigfeld Group. Mr. Robinson was asked to leave by the end of last month.
Some neighbors held a rally on his behalf, and then his lawyer helped arrange a deal last week that will let him stay until early next year and receive money from the new management group for his move. The new owners did not return several phone calls seeking an interview.
Even if Mr. Robinson finds a new location, however, the market rates for commercial space in Harlem, and throughout Manhattan, could make it difficult for the store to survive, said Denise Benjamin, Mr. Robinson’s daughter, who now runs the store.
“I’m concerned that we may not be able to reopen anywhere,” Ms. Benjamin said.
“And I’m really concerned about him because it’s his life work,” she said of her father.
Mr. Robinson came to Harlem and opened his store after serving in the Army in Hawaii. He was originally on 125th Street, at the corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard. Nearly 20 years ago, he was forced around the corner and onto Frederick Douglass by the advent of a Kentucky Fried Chicken branch.
Even with that move, Mr. Robinson had the same landlord, a friend who Ms. Benjamin said gave him a good deal on rent. When that building owner died, his daughter took over and continued to charge Mr. Robinson a manageable rent.
Ms. Benjamin said they now pay $2,850 a month for about 1,200 square feet, which is the equivalent of $28.50 per square foot per year. Retail space in Harlem is generally going for $75 to $200 per square foot per year, according to separate estimates by Shimon Shkury, a managing partner at Massey Knakal Realty Services, and CB Richard Ellis, a brokerage firm.
Of course, Mr. Robinson could move out of Harlem, but that would be less than desirable. For one thing, Mr. Robinson is widely believed to be the first black business owner on 125th Street — a distinction that his new landlords agreed to note in a plaque at the site of his original storefront. He has also lived within walking distance of his store since it opened.
“Harlem is my home,” he said. “It always sets me apart as the first colored man to ever own a store on 125th Street. That’s my big thing.”
Indeed, some people believe that Harlem without Bobby’s would not be the same.
The store is a stop on Hush Tours, which takes people for a close look at the hip-hop culture in Harlem and the Bronx. Debra Harris, who owns the tour company, said the visit to Bobby’s helps people gain a sense of the roots of hip-hop: Mr. Robinson produced records for several performers under his own labels.
“With that being gone, it’s really, really going to hurt the community and the preservation of the roots of hip-hop,” Ms. Harris said, “because he’s like one of the last Mohicans up there.”
For the moment, however, Mr. Robinson, who was dressed in a suit with a top hat and snakeskin shoes, seems to be proceeding with the unruffled demeanor of a man who has lived his life note by note.
“I’ve had a great life so far,” he said.
In Harlem, 2 Record Stores Go the Way of the Vinyl
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
The record store Bobby’s Happy House was replete with photos of the owner, Bobby Robinson, with stars like James Brown. The store shuts its doors on Monday.
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: January 21, 2008
Correction Appended
On Saturday morning, Bobby’s Happy House, a music store in Harlem that opened in 1946, was in a state of chaos.
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
Bobby Robinson.
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
Sikhulu Shange, 66, has until March 31 to vacate the Harlem Record Shack after 36 years in business on 125th Street.
The store’s owner, 91-year-old Bobby Robinson, who was wearing a dark blue suit and his trademark black fedora, seemed bewildered as he surveyed his store. Albums were stacked on the floor, photographs of him with Fats Domino, James Brown and others had been pulled from the walls and the store’s glass display cases contained only a few scattered CDs and cassette tapes.
A few hundred feet southeast, at the Harlem Record Shack on 125th Street, an employee with a handmade sign was urging passers-by to sign a petition to keep that store from being evicted.
Inside, the voice of the store’s owner, Sikhulu Shange, 66, rang through the Record Shack as he vowed not to go easily, even though he was under a court order to leave within a few weeks, after 36 years in business there.
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Shange, who have been friendly rivals for Harlem’s music dollars for almost two generations, are on the cusp of being forced out of business here within weeks of each other as Harlem continues its uneasy transition from being a haven for some of the city’s poorest residents to a place where apartments selling for $1 million and tripling commercial rents have become unremarkable occurrences.
Bobby’s Happy House, on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near 125th Street, is closing on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Mr. Shange has been given until the end of March to vacate his store.
Each man represents a distinct generation of black men who arrived in Harlem as young men seeking to contribute to a neighborhood they had long heard about and had admired.
Mr. Robinson, originally from South Carolina, came after World War II. He speaks in the language of that time, using words like “colored,” which has long been retired.
Mr. Shange, who arrived from South Africa in the 1960s, came of age during that era’s tradition of protest. He wears dashikis and repeats words like “empowerment.”
Each man said the runaway pace of change in the neighborhood during the past few years was unlike anything they had seen before.
“Everything you see here, I built,” Mr. Robinson said, waving his arm around his store as friends and family members boxed up decades of mementos. “How do you think I feel?”
On the other hand, Mr. Shange, who was at the center of an eviction battle in the 1990s that culminated in gunfire and an arson attack that killed eight people, left no doubt about his feelings. He was angry.
“There was a time when everybody was running away from Harlem, but we stayed, keeping the culture alive,” he said, as shoppers surveyed the small store’s African, gospel, jazz and R&B selections that are kept in locked glass cases. “We don’t have nothing to show for being in the community all these years and keeping it beautiful. Tourists are not coming here to see McDonald’s and Burger King. They are coming here to see black culture.”
The two stores have survived so long, the owners say, because they offer services and products customers cannot get anyplace else.
At Bobby’s Happy House, those services included recording albums onto cassettes or CDs for customers and allowing visitors to pull up a plastic chair and chat with Mr. Robinson, who was a noted record producer. His work included Wilbert Harrison’s No. 1 hit “Kansas City” in 1959 and groundbreaking hip-hop songs by Doug E. Fresh and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five during the late 1970s.
The inspiration for the name of Bobby’s Happy House, which has had various names over the years, was a doo-wop song Mr. Robinson wrote for Lewis Lymon & the Teenchords in 1956 called “I’m So Happy,” a hit in the Northeast. (Lewis Lymon was the younger brother of Frankie Lymon, best known for a song with the Teenagers, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?”).
At the Record Shack, customers have found in Mr. Shange, a former dancer, an authoritative source on American soul music and hard-to-find African music. In a nod to their customers, both stores continued to sell records and cassette tapes, formats most other stores have not sold for years.
“A lot of old people are ashamed to go to a store and ask them for cassettes,” said Mr. Robinson’s daughter, Denise Benjamin, who has managed Bobby’s Happy House for her father in recent years.
Both Mr. Robinson and Mr. Shange said it was unclear what role the downturn in the record music industry has had on their stores, but HMV and the Wiz, two large retailers that sold CDs and other items, have closed stores on 125th Street during the past few years.
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Shange said they had been caught off-guard by their evictions and the transformation of the neighborhood. Each has a different landlord. Within a few blocks of their stores are more than a dozen construction sites for projects that include a 19-story hotel, office towers and luxury co-ops and condominiums.
Once the last of the old records have been cleared from Bobby’s — and other tenants in the block-long building have moved out — the new owners, a partnership of the Sigfeld Group and Kimco Realty Corporation, have said they will tear down the structure and replace it with a four-story office building, including retail space on the ground floor. None of the old tenants, including Mr. Robinson, said they had been invited to set up shop in the new building. Several store owners have filed a lawsuit contesting their evictions.
Ms. Benjamin said family members decided not to join the lawsuit because they wanted to save their money to find a location nearby.
Representatives for Sigfeld and Kimco, which bought the building for $30 million in August, did not respond to phone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment. Mr. Shange’s landlord, the United House of Prayer for All People, won a court order forcing Mr. Shange to leave the store empty and “broom clean” by March 31. The church has not announced its plans for the space, and a church representative at its headquarters in Washington declined to comment. David M. Grill, the attorney representing the church in New York, did not return a phone call and an e-mail message seeking comment.
Mr. Shange, who has been paying $4,500 a month — about $500 more a month than Mr. Robinson at Bobby’s Happy House — said that he was willing to pay more, but that the church, which is above the store, had refused to negotiate.
Mr. Shange said the store was organizing a protest rally on Sunday at 11 a.m., when many of the church’s parishioners will be arriving for services.
A flier at his store advertising the rally reads: “Protest Greedy Landlords! We will not be moved from Harlem!!! We must reclaim, preserve and protect our historic black community. If we do not, no one will!!!”
Eight thousand people have signed a petition opposing his store’s eviction, he said.
When Mr. Shange faced eviction in 1995 during a dispute with a different landlord, who held the sublease for the Record Shack, weeks of demonstrations over the plans of the landlord, who was white, to evict the black-owned store took on a racial tinge. The dispute ended after a protester walked into the landlord’s store, which was next to the Record Shack, carrying a handgun and a container of paint thinner. After shooting and wounding four people, he set the store ablaze before shooting himself. He and seven other people died in the blaze.
Mr. Shange said he expected the coming demonstration to be peaceful, just as others in support of his store have been in recent months.
Unlike Mr. Shange, Mr. Robinson’s daughter said she did not particularly object to the changes occurring in Harlem, which have included new bank branches and grocery stores.
“I don’t mind change, but when people have had to endure everything — and you know if you’ve been here 60 years you’ve endured a lot,” she said, her voice trailing off. “This is everything to him.”
Correction: February 1, 2008
An article in some editions on Jan. 21 about two music stores in Harlem that are victims of gentrification misstated their relative location. The Harlem Record Shack, on West 125th Street, is southeast — not northwest — of Bobby’s Happy House, which is on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and is a few hundred feet — not a few hundred yards — away.
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
The record store Bobby’s Happy House was replete with photos of the owner, Bobby Robinson, with stars like James Brown. The store shuts its doors on Monday.
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: January 21, 2008
Correction Appended
On Saturday morning, Bobby’s Happy House, a music store in Harlem that opened in 1946, was in a state of chaos.
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
Bobby Robinson.
Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times
Sikhulu Shange, 66, has until March 31 to vacate the Harlem Record Shack after 36 years in business on 125th Street.
The store’s owner, 91-year-old Bobby Robinson, who was wearing a dark blue suit and his trademark black fedora, seemed bewildered as he surveyed his store. Albums were stacked on the floor, photographs of him with Fats Domino, James Brown and others had been pulled from the walls and the store’s glass display cases contained only a few scattered CDs and cassette tapes.
A few hundred feet southeast, at the Harlem Record Shack on 125th Street, an employee with a handmade sign was urging passers-by to sign a petition to keep that store from being evicted.
Inside, the voice of the store’s owner, Sikhulu Shange, 66, rang through the Record Shack as he vowed not to go easily, even though he was under a court order to leave within a few weeks, after 36 years in business there.
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Shange, who have been friendly rivals for Harlem’s music dollars for almost two generations, are on the cusp of being forced out of business here within weeks of each other as Harlem continues its uneasy transition from being a haven for some of the city’s poorest residents to a place where apartments selling for $1 million and tripling commercial rents have become unremarkable occurrences.
Bobby’s Happy House, on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near 125th Street, is closing on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Mr. Shange has been given until the end of March to vacate his store.
Each man represents a distinct generation of black men who arrived in Harlem as young men seeking to contribute to a neighborhood they had long heard about and had admired.
Mr. Robinson, originally from South Carolina, came after World War II. He speaks in the language of that time, using words like “colored,” which has long been retired.
Mr. Shange, who arrived from South Africa in the 1960s, came of age during that era’s tradition of protest. He wears dashikis and repeats words like “empowerment.”
Each man said the runaway pace of change in the neighborhood during the past few years was unlike anything they had seen before.
“Everything you see here, I built,” Mr. Robinson said, waving his arm around his store as friends and family members boxed up decades of mementos. “How do you think I feel?”
On the other hand, Mr. Shange, who was at the center of an eviction battle in the 1990s that culminated in gunfire and an arson attack that killed eight people, left no doubt about his feelings. He was angry.
“There was a time when everybody was running away from Harlem, but we stayed, keeping the culture alive,” he said, as shoppers surveyed the small store’s African, gospel, jazz and R&B selections that are kept in locked glass cases. “We don’t have nothing to show for being in the community all these years and keeping it beautiful. Tourists are not coming here to see McDonald’s and Burger King. They are coming here to see black culture.”
The two stores have survived so long, the owners say, because they offer services and products customers cannot get anyplace else.
At Bobby’s Happy House, those services included recording albums onto cassettes or CDs for customers and allowing visitors to pull up a plastic chair and chat with Mr. Robinson, who was a noted record producer. His work included Wilbert Harrison’s No. 1 hit “Kansas City” in 1959 and groundbreaking hip-hop songs by Doug E. Fresh and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five during the late 1970s.
The inspiration for the name of Bobby’s Happy House, which has had various names over the years, was a doo-wop song Mr. Robinson wrote for Lewis Lymon & the Teenchords in 1956 called “I’m So Happy,” a hit in the Northeast. (Lewis Lymon was the younger brother of Frankie Lymon, best known for a song with the Teenagers, “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?”).
At the Record Shack, customers have found in Mr. Shange, a former dancer, an authoritative source on American soul music and hard-to-find African music. In a nod to their customers, both stores continued to sell records and cassette tapes, formats most other stores have not sold for years.
“A lot of old people are ashamed to go to a store and ask them for cassettes,” said Mr. Robinson’s daughter, Denise Benjamin, who has managed Bobby’s Happy House for her father in recent years.
Both Mr. Robinson and Mr. Shange said it was unclear what role the downturn in the record music industry has had on their stores, but HMV and the Wiz, two large retailers that sold CDs and other items, have closed stores on 125th Street during the past few years.
Mr. Robinson and Mr. Shange said they had been caught off-guard by their evictions and the transformation of the neighborhood. Each has a different landlord. Within a few blocks of their stores are more than a dozen construction sites for projects that include a 19-story hotel, office towers and luxury co-ops and condominiums.
Once the last of the old records have been cleared from Bobby’s — and other tenants in the block-long building have moved out — the new owners, a partnership of the Sigfeld Group and Kimco Realty Corporation, have said they will tear down the structure and replace it with a four-story office building, including retail space on the ground floor. None of the old tenants, including Mr. Robinson, said they had been invited to set up shop in the new building. Several store owners have filed a lawsuit contesting their evictions.
Ms. Benjamin said family members decided not to join the lawsuit because they wanted to save their money to find a location nearby.
Representatives for Sigfeld and Kimco, which bought the building for $30 million in August, did not respond to phone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment. Mr. Shange’s landlord, the United House of Prayer for All People, won a court order forcing Mr. Shange to leave the store empty and “broom clean” by March 31. The church has not announced its plans for the space, and a church representative at its headquarters in Washington declined to comment. David M. Grill, the attorney representing the church in New York, did not return a phone call and an e-mail message seeking comment.
Mr. Shange, who has been paying $4,500 a month — about $500 more a month than Mr. Robinson at Bobby’s Happy House — said that he was willing to pay more, but that the church, which is above the store, had refused to negotiate.
Mr. Shange said the store was organizing a protest rally on Sunday at 11 a.m., when many of the church’s parishioners will be arriving for services.
A flier at his store advertising the rally reads: “Protest Greedy Landlords! We will not be moved from Harlem!!! We must reclaim, preserve and protect our historic black community. If we do not, no one will!!!”
Eight thousand people have signed a petition opposing his store’s eviction, he said.
When Mr. Shange faced eviction in 1995 during a dispute with a different landlord, who held the sublease for the Record Shack, weeks of demonstrations over the plans of the landlord, who was white, to evict the black-owned store took on a racial tinge. The dispute ended after a protester walked into the landlord’s store, which was next to the Record Shack, carrying a handgun and a container of paint thinner. After shooting and wounding four people, he set the store ablaze before shooting himself. He and seven other people died in the blaze.
Mr. Shange said he expected the coming demonstration to be peaceful, just as others in support of his store have been in recent months.
Unlike Mr. Shange, Mr. Robinson’s daughter said she did not particularly object to the changes occurring in Harlem, which have included new bank branches and grocery stores.
“I don’t mind change, but when people have had to endure everything — and you know if you’ve been here 60 years you’ve endured a lot,” she said, her voice trailing off. “This is everything to him.”
Correction: February 1, 2008
An article in some editions on Jan. 21 about two music stores in Harlem that are victims of gentrification misstated their relative location. The Harlem Record Shack, on West 125th Street, is southeast — not northwest — of Bobby’s Happy House, which is on Frederick Douglass Boulevard, and is a few hundred feet — not a few hundred yards — away.